Brittle Boys
by ahsokanerd
Summary: Hera's team of rebels investigate an Imperial base that's been abandoned for years. They soon discover that the base is crawling with undead stormtroopers... and they're not the only team on the base. [Unfinished] [Two-shot][One-shot]


Brittle Boys

(This is the unfinished first half of what would've been a two-part Halloween special. Thus the quality.)

Blood was warm and sticky, yet the liquid that came out of the thing after Hera shot it a couple of times was cold against her skin, and felt more like a mixture of water and slime than blood when she wiped some of it off herself with her hands. It looked like blood, but it wasn't.

Or it was very, very old blood. Yet she didn't want to entertain that thought.

"I hate to say it, but that thing looked like a corpse. That blood could've been rotting for over a decade."

Hera scowled and her green lekku twitched. "I thought you promised to stay out of my head, Kanan."

"I didn't." He gestured at the stormtrooper's corpse on the ground. "We were all thinking it."

"Fair enough." Even still, Hera was disgusted and didn't want to think about that. But she didn't really have a choice. This thing, whatever it was, was an enemy that they had to face—and, hopefully, destroy for good. "What do we call these guys?"

Appearing from a door at the rear of the storage room, Ezra walked in, with Sabine and Zeb close behind. Chopper was still in the Ghost, hovering above the abandoned base and waiting for their signal. "Ah, I see you got in here just in time," said Sabine, taking off her helmet as she looked at the corpse at their feet.

Hera huffed. "No kidding."

"We were just discussing what we should name these things," Kanan said. "Any ideas?"

"Doesn't matter to me." Zeb pushed his fist into his palm for greater emphasis. "They're still bucket-heads, even if they are a little soft."

Hera chuckled, but quickly sobered. "Still, you can't help but feel bad for them," she said. "They were people at one time, with families, dreams, hopes and ambitions, just like the rest of us. And whatever happened stole all of that away from them."

"Hey, I've got a name idea," Ezra said with a grin. He kicked the body. "Let's call them brittle boys, because of, you know, their softness? Get it?"

Everyone looked at him with unimpressed expressions, and Zeb folded his thick arms against his chest in disapproval.

Ezra's arms hung loosely at his sides. "Aww, come on, it wasn't that bad, was it?"

"Yeah... Sorry, it was bad," said Sabine.

A feminine voice above them spoke, startling them all. "We call them death troopers." They looked up to where the voice seemed to be coming from, but they couldn't see anyone.

"Come down from there!" Kanan said, pointing a blaster up at the ceiling. The rest of the crew soon followed, pointing their blasters wherever they thought best. "We won't hurt you."

"Fine, fine, I'll be right down," the voice said.

What followed was a noisy exit of the ceiling by the hidden person. Sabine shifted her aim appropriately, but Hera just tucked her blaster back in her holster and rolled her eyes at Kanan. "Whoever that is clearly doesn't care if we notice them," she said when the noise could no longer be heard.

Kanan nodded. "You've got that right."

The same blast door Sabine, Ezra, and Zeb had walked through opened, revealing a purple-skinned, teenage Twi'lek girl with a dumpy figure wearing a grey Imperial uniform. Scanning the room, her eyes brightened when she saw Hera, and she happily skipped over to the woman and held out her hand. "Hi! I'm Lieutenant Rachi Birchwood, but please, just call me Rachi. What your name? Are you part of the task force too?" She clasped her hands together excitedly. "I was hoping the admiral would assign another Twi'lek to this place. It's so boring, you know? I mean, besides the dead guys that are walking about and all that jazz. But hey, even if you aren't part of the task force, it's great that there's three of us now."

"Um, I see. Nice to meet you, Rachi." Hera shook the offered hand, forcing herself not to show the disgust and sadness she was feeling. She had never known that it was possible for someone that was a member of her own species to fall for the Empire's propaganda and work for them, despite the speciesism that was plain to see. She gestured to Kanan, who was standing to her right, and then gestured to the rest of the crew. "I'm Hera, and these are–"

"We're smugglers," Kanan said somewhat truthfully, interrupting Hera's words. "My name's Kanan. This is Ezra"—he pointed at the teenage Human boy—"my student and nephew. The rest of them are just passengers." Rachi nodded and smiled politely at each, and grinned widely when she saw Sabine's armor. "We came here to refuel and talk business with whoever was in charge of this place, but we soon discovered that it was abandoned and full of walking dead—well, at least until you showed up."

"Ooh," Rachi said, "how exciting! Come, I'll take you to the commander and away from this mess. You really don't want to stay in here with that smelly body. It's kind of gross."

Hera glanced at Kanan, and he nodded slightly in agreement. "Thank you. We'll gladly accept your offer, since we'd rather not be sleeping here on the floor," she said. "While you're taking us to this commander of yours, could you tell me a little bit about yourself and this place?"

Rachi shrugged as she led them out of the storage room and down a corridor. "Yeah, I'll tell you what I can. I'm fifteen, and I've been working for the task force for the past year." She patted the blue and red squares on her uniform proudly. "I was given my rank just a few weeks ago, actually. It's pretty awesome. Plus, I get to be around my friends. I hated staying behind when they went on missions without me before."

Ezra jogged forward and began walking by her side. "Okay, but what do you guys actually do?" he pressed. "It just doesn't make any sense that"—Sabine lightly kicked him in the leg—"ouch!"

"Naw, it's okay to ask," Rachi said politely. "It's not like it's some big secret or anything." Ezra knew that it was the over-emphasis on getting secret information that the team was worried about. While they were here, they might as well check and see if they could learn anything from a big-mouthed girl, but they couldn't compromise the mission.

"We do clean-up operations, like this one, for example," Rachi continued, "and we also do exploratory missions. We've gone to other galaxies at least three times, in fact. And finally, we sometimes do scouting missions under the command of Grand Admiral Thrawn for Force-sensitives." She frowned. "That's kinda it. Not very exciting, I'm afraid. For now."

She said it so casually, yet alarm bells were already ringing in Kanan's mind as they strolled into another hallway. _Searching Force-sensitives?_ There were two of them in his crew, including himself, and that meant that they were putting all of them at risk. Thinking fast, he came up with a reason to excuse himself. He stopped, then bowed respectfully when Rachi stopped and looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Excuse me, but Ezra and I have to check with the droid on our ship and let him know we won't be coming tonight. I don't want him getting worried."

As the words left his mouth, he realized he'd made a grave mistake. He didn't know what it was. But something in the Force was telling him that he had.

"Oh." Rachi looked at Ezra. "Is something damaged on your ship? Why can't you make a transmission from here?"

Ezra ran a through his hair. "Um, you see, my uncle ... he's drunk a lot, and when he ... barfed on the controls, he damaged some of the circuits." He laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, he's an entertaining guy."

Kanan coughed to stop himself from laughing.

Rachi raised an eyebrow. "Well if Kanan really is a smuggler and a drunkard, then you're certainly not authorized to be on this base, especially when were dealing with the undead."

Kanan scowled. "I'm not a drunk-"

Out of nowhere, the Twi'lek produced a blaster pistol and aimed it at Kanan's heart. "You're obviously lying and up to no good," she said, interrupting him. "If you're not his uncle, then who are you to be traveling with a bunch of kids?" She glanced over at Hera. "And how do you fit into this? I am willing to provide you with the things you need, if you tell me the truth. But whatever you're doing seems to be very illegal."

Hera sighed. "You're a kid yourself, you know." Making sure she had Rachi's attention focused on her words, she slowly reached for her own pistol. "Why aren't you with your parents or in the slave camps? You're more likely lying to us. This base is supposed to be abandoned."

"You don't believe that," Rachi said in a sing-song voice. "Those questions apply to Ezra, not me." She pressed something on her wrist. "I'm sorry. You seemed nice."

"Ezra, watch out!" Kanan said, pushing the kid out of the way as Rachi fired multiple stun bolts at him. Hera and Sabine began returning fire, though they used live rounds.

Once the crew of the _Ghost _had taken cover wherever it could be found, Zeb spoke to Kanan as they crouched behind a crate. "Want me to go and knock the girl out? She has useful info, and with that big mouth of hers, she'll be easy to get intel out of."

"Alright," Kanan said. "Let's put her in a corner. Ezra, go with Zeb and get behind her. The rest of us will keep her occupied."

"No."

Hera, who was a few feet away from the three males, shot Ezra a disapproving look when she heard his refusal. "Listen to Kanan, Ezra! Fighting among comrades in battle is never right."

"I'm not fighting," Ezra said, "I'm helping." He turned to Kanan. "Master, there's something I don't like about this. I can feel it. Maybe ... maybe I should capture her and use my lightsaber to do it."

"I don't know..."

"Please, I might never have a better chance to practice it in real life again. And stormtroopers could arrive any moment now."

Kanan bit his lip, sighed, and nodded. "Fine." Then he yelled so that every member of the crew could hear. "Switch to stun!" He looked back at Ezra. "Go get her, padawan."

Ezra gave a mock salute and smiled. "This won't take long."

Getting the attention of Rachi was easy. When Ezra stood up, walking calmly towards his target and nimbly dodging the stun bolts that were being fired in his direction as Kanan had taught him, Rachi would be able to figure out exactly what kind of person he was. And as he pulled out his lightsaber and ignited the glowing blue blade, he looked at the young Twi'lek's face to see her reaction.

It was very, very different than he expected. Rachi's eyes widened, and she stretched out both of her hands. Ezra was puzzled at first. But when he found himself flying into the air, landing in an uncomfortable heap next to Hera, he knew exactly what had occurred. "You're- you're a Sith!"

"Nope, totally wrong!" Rachi rolled her eyes. "Someone with the Force that just happens to be on another side doesn't make them a-"

"Wait. All of you stop, take a breath, and calm down. She's not the enemy." Hera turned to Rachi. "We're not your enemy, either. You're associated with Fulcrum."

"What?" Sabine said, shocked.

Rachi gulped. "I, um... No. Hold on." Carefully lowering her lightsaber, she watched the group of rebels as she raises her left arm to her mouth. "Phoenix-1, do you copy?"

"I copy," a feminine voice replied. "We're almost there. Are you safe?"

"I'm safe. Uh, these people who I was with at first, then kinda fought for a bit, are saying that they know Fulcrum."

"Oh." There was a pause. "Ask them to surrender."

Rachi raised an eyemarking as she shifted her gaze towards Kanan. "Uh uh. It won't happen."

Leaning into her lover's shoulder, Hera whispered, "Don't worry, it'll all work out. That's her."

"Who?" Kanan said, whispering back. "The girl? She's Fulcrum?"

Hera shook her head. "Not that one."

"I'm just going to stand her until you get here," Rachi said, still speaking with Phoenix-1. "I kinda have a few blasters pointed at me right now." Her eyes twitched and she lowered her wrist. "Never mind."

"Hmm?" Hera was puzzled at first, but then she heard people approaching from behind. Kanan had already turned around when she saw who it was. "Fulcrum."

"Spector-1," replied a tall, orange-skinned Togruta female with blue-striped lekku. She wore robes similar to the robes of the Jedi order, but the uniform showed a considerably larger amount of cleavage. A small dark-red cape that cut off right above her knees and tightly fitted around her back with a plastoid belt of a similar color, completed her look. A squad of Stormtroopers stood at attention behind her as she bowed respectfully at the group. Hera did the same. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Wait," Kanan said, "your source is an Imperial?"

Hera smiled. "She's much more than that."

The woman chuckled and smiled at him. "I was afraid you wouldn't understand, but I suppose it's too late for that now." She put a hand on Rachi's shoulder when the girl came up to her as she was speaking. "Caleb, it's been far too long. It's good to see you again."

"What? No, I can't believe it… Ahsoka?"

"Yes."

**AhsokaNerd's Corner**

This is going to remain a one-shot. Initially I was planning to release this as a two-part story on Halloween, but a ton of personal and school-related stuff has come up, reducing my writing time. _Alien_ has my priority. As for _Brittle Boys,_ it would have ended with the two teams—Hera's and Ahsoka's—working together to clear away the last of the Death Troopers. During this Kanan and Ahsoka would have traded stories about their lives over the past few years, then discussed the future of the Jedi Order.

This is not canon in my universe (_Alien_). It does, however, give a small spoiler for the future of said story.

Thanks for reading!

AhsokaNerd


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